


And the World Keeps Expanding

by keiimos



Series: The World Keeps Turning On Its Axis [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Historical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 19:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1910151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keiimos/pseuds/keiimos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hindsight is a powerful thing. A look into the earlier days of a more unified India and the child that he cared for during that time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And the World Keeps Expanding

**Author's Note:**

> Characters: India (Nalin Roy), Pakistan (Aahan Roy*), Bangldesh (Udit Roy*), Afghanistan (Afia), Bhutan (Tashi), Akbar.
> 
> Mentioned but not shown: Persia (Iran), Portugal, China, Sri Lanka.
> 
> Setting: Northern India, during Mughal Rule, after the Suri Empire ended so sometime after 1556. Current Emperor is Akbar.
> 
> Since I’m writing for an English speaking audience who is probably not as familiar with other forms of address than those common in our language, I’m going to stick to using English equivalents of certain words, unless I think it is vitally important that you know this word. One such word is the Hindustani word ‘bhai’ or brother. Learn it. Memorize it. 
> 
> (I say that like I am not a native English speaker, but I mean like I could have gotten more in detail but let’s not.)
> 
> Fun fact: Modern Hindi/Urdu are mutually intelligible and are grouped together underneath the term Hindustani.

Empires rose and fell all the time. He has gotten used to that, and he doesn’t ever expect much to come out of them. Hindsight being what it was, perhaps he should have been paying more attention. He’d never admit that without being under the influence of something however. Persia is knocking at his country’s doorstep and there is increasing pressure from all over, not just from said person who had aided this Mughal Empire’s return to power. There were so many people of Persia’s ilk in his cities now.

But that isn’t important in the long scheme of things. What is important is trying to make a young child understand the importance of eating everything on his plate before he would be allowed to even think about dessert. It isn’t helped by the fact that in Aahan’s many years he has long since figured out that human women were willing to give him whatever he wanted. Nalin quickly figured out that he was not helping him grow into a well-rounded individual sometime in the later parts of the 15th century. He is sure it is too late, and the mulish set to Aahan’s shoulders and his continued ignoring of the rest of his food is only proving him correct.

He doesn’t want to plead but, “Little one,” he says in what he hopes is a firm voice, “You’re never going to grow if you don’t eat. You realize right?”

He waits a moment, and then another one and as predicted nothing is said in response. He thought he could be stubborn but his brother really was another class altogether. He sighs loudly, and opens his mouth to lecture him on wastefulness, when someone enters the room and bows. These newcomers aren’t sure how to deal with him. He isn’t like Persia and doesn’t stand too much on ceremony but he is still literally their land personified so respect is due to him. What confuses them is how much they should show to him that won’t have him clicking his tongue and going ‘that’s more than enough’.

He waits a moment before sighing when the attendant doesn’t say anything, “Yes?”

“His Imperial Majesty requests your attention, Prince.”

He wonders what that could be about as he lightly taps on his brother’s head, “We’re being summoned, wash your hands and face, Aahan.” And to the servant, “We’ll be there in a moment.”

The attendant bows and departs. Aahan frowns, “What about my dessert?”

“What about all this food still on your plate?”

That doesn’t go over well with Aahan and he begins trying to argue his point—until Nalin points out that if he was full he won’t even have room for dessert in the first place. It is declared a fair point; they fix their clothes after washing up, and head to where Akbar is waiting.

He swears that the folds of his outfit are hiding someone as the older man nods and points out the window. He starts on a speech about the victories they gained in the east and that now they have access to more wealth than previously. Nalin mostly tunes him out, convinced he is seeing a familiar hand clinging to the side of his leader’s pants and when Akbar fully turns around he has taken several steps forward before he realized it.

“Oh…” he mutters, taking in the sight of the tired boy. The last time he had seen this child, they had been smaller and yet the eyes that met his straight on were unmistakably that of his neighboring nation. He tilts his head and smiles, “Well, you really have done much, majesty. This is indeed a wise move on your part. It has been a while, Udit.”

The boy frowns at him, and covers his yawn in his hand, “You have gotten bigger. Your people have attacked mines again.”

“Such is the nature of the world,” and so it was. Empires would rise and fall, and his siblings would come to live with him and depart for their own lands after a time. It was as expected and has it had been for a long while. At least that was how it had been…until…

“I do not recognize that person,” Udit said after looking at Aahan, and frowning a bit, “But he is like us.”

“Yes,” Nalin glances over his shoulder, and then at Udit still standing in the shadow of Akbar, “May I, my liege?”

“They will be living together, so you might as well. It will be time for prayer soon, so make sure you attend.” Akbar detangles himself and then touches Nalin lightly on the shoulder as he headed away from the room, “There is still more that we must discuss. I will expect to see you later.”

Nalin nods in acknowledgement, “Of course.”

Udit has braced himself against the wall and was yawning again.

“You’ve had a long journey.”

“I am exhausted. It is a long trip from my land to this place. I was sleeping and they woke me so I could meet you. As if I have not met you before.”

“They don’t often listen to us, Udit, I’ve found. Well, you’ve met me, but you have not met Aahan before,” Nalin turns to wave him forward, and finds that he was sitting on the ground, expression one that promised a fit of some sort about something. Was it about the dessert? Was he still on that? Children, honestly.

“Which nation is he?”

“Well, considering how devoted he is, one of the Islamic nations.”

“Why did they send him here?”

“I was born here,” Aahan firmly states, eyes narrowed at Udit, “This is my home.”

Before Udit can speak, Nalin cuts in, “I found him a while ago. He was smaller than he is now, but not by much. There was no one who could properly care for him and they were starting to worry since he wasn’t aging, so I took him with me. He is one of those that represents this land with me.”

“Like the others?” he can tell he has confused Udit and he doesn’t know how to sort this out. The world made sense before Aahan had shown up and suddenly it wasn’t just his own wellbeing and self he had to look after, it was this child that was his brother and whose existence was so fragile.

“Perhaps he is to be my replacement,” he muses, looking at Aahan who glares at him, “But I don’t think I will die. I feel stronger than ever. No…I think he is a new nation all of his own.” That was what he has to comfort himself with. He had shown up and the nation before him, his mother, had disappeared soon after. Aahan is here now, and does this mean it is the beginning of the end for him? But he sighs when he recalls a conversation he had had with his more eastern neighbor concerning nations he had discovered in the ocean a while ago. “I am taking care of him until he can stand on his own, I guess you could say.”

“He is lucky that your care doesn’t involve invading his home.”

“It isn’t as if many of your cities burned,” Nalin replies, as he goes and takes Aahan’s hand and tugs him up, “Aahan, this is Udit, he is our brother. He is the country that borders the bay to the east of here.”

He watches them take each other’s measure, and thinks to himself that it would be nice if they could get along if only for the sake of Aahan’s interpersonal development. The company of people who can speak should be preferred more over the company of the wild animals that roam the palace. And Udit is a mostly levelheaded boy so perhaps he can ease some of the wilderness that lingers still in Aahan out.

Of course, nothing will ever be that simple in Nalin’s life so hindsight is a powerful thing as Aahan stares at Udit for several moments before dismissing him and looking out the window, “I want dessert.”

* * *

 

Akbar keeps fighting, and gaining more and more territory as he does more things that make him unlike other kings that Nalin has dealt with for more than a few years. He is growing fond of the man.

He is not fond of the number of fights Udit and Aahan get into and the number of them Aahan wins for sheer fact that he is just a few pounds bigger than Udit. When did he start plumping up? If Persia sees him, she will be delighted and then worry that he will grow too round and get sick. It’s all the desserts, he is sure, that Aahan is sneaking from the kitchen when he is not around.

He looks at his ink stained hands and sighs, pushing thoughts of other people, and their opinions that shouldn’t matter but do oddly enough out of his mind. Just that morning had seen Udit getting a scrap on his arm from hitting the ground at an angle and he had then made Aahan copy down several scriptures. Udit had been summoned to discuss his people, and he had settled down next to Aahan, who was mouthing words underneath his breathe as he wrote them out, to respond to letters for the morning.

Prayer and then he had gone out in the city and not taken Aahan because honestly he needs to stop fighting and doing such things as hitting other people for nonsensical reasons. Udit is by his side and he was dressed in finery and looked decidedly less tired so many weeks later. If Aahan came up to his stomach when standing on tip toes and looked the equal of a nine-year-old child, then Udit fell an inch or two shorter yet looked the same age. Udit is older, he was sure. But the years started to blend together so by how much older he couldn't be sure.

“How is your arm?”

“It stings, but it will heal soon enough.” Depending on the health of a nation and what their people were going through, that’s how long it took for injuries to heal for them. They still healed faster than humans, though so he couldn't complain. He wants to say ‘you would heal faster if your people would stop resisting,’ but that wasn’t the sort of thing you just said to someone your people had just recently took over, so he didn’t.

“I’m sorry, he hasn’t been this aggressive in a while.” An outlet would need to get looked for, but it wasn’t like he could send a child to go fight in wars. That would probably make him crave drawing blood. Honestly what was he to do?

“Then you should fix that. I already am living here, must I suffer further abuse?”

He wanted to point out that he hadn’t laid a hand on Udit, but since he was supposed to be raising Aahan, “I will speak with him,” is what he says instead. Aahan can be stubborn but Nalin can be patient at times, and with enough force you can even break a mountain. But it isn’t as if he needs to get broken, just taken in hand. He looks at the mark on Udit’s arm as he pushes open the door to a shop and winces in sympathy.

* * *

 Meeting the other neighboring nations had been interesting when he had been younger. He had even traveled down so far south he had crossed the massive ocean and ran into a beautiful girl with long hair who fixed her eyes on him and cursed his very existence. His sister to the south is very annoyed with him constantly so they seldom met for long without getting into a disagreement. He could understand but honestly it wasn’t as if his people were doing anything that other people hadn’t done to them. And at least she only had to worry about his influence and not their more northern and western neighbors too much.

 Then along the border with Yao there are more of his siblings and he’s glad of their presence, because sometimes the ambitions of that one’s emperors annoy him. He is also glad of the mountains during those times as well.

 There’s something amusing about seeing Udit do things that he doesn’t let Aahan do. And it is probably for these reasons Aahan hates him (but which ‘him’ does he hate most?).

“That is a new habit,” he says when they are returning to the palace. Udit might have the body of a child, but he carries himself like an adult and he is wise. It must be hard to be in a body that does not match how old you are mentally. Udit has seen hell and has been alive for many centuries. Nalin wonders if seeing hell and seeing death is an unavoidable fate for their kind and if he is doing Aahan no favors by moving them when he can sense that war is coming. But, it is not as if his little brother has not seen war before in all the conquests that their homeland has gone through.

 “I would say the same to you, but you have always had bad habits.”

 He laughs, “Well, I have become better, you must admit.”

“Settling down in one area and not wandering around to places you’re not wanted is new.”

“It was hard to travel with a small child.”

 “He is not much smaller than me.”

“No,” and Nalin sighs, “He is not.”

 The rates at which Nations age is odd, and he cannot help but think as he looks at Udit walking in front of him that perhaps Aahan is older than he gives him credit for.

* * *

 

They return and Aahan is no longer in his rooms but the demanded verses are written out neatly enough, and there aren’t too many mistakes so he calms himself. He searches the kitchens first, and gets report that Aahan had stopped by and gotten food and then left. He checks where Akbar is enclosed with his advisors and his ministers and his helpers, but there is no Aahan standing at attention, eyes glued to the map, seeing what Akbar sees of their territory expanding. He checks hidden nooks that small children could get into, and still no Aahan.

So he thinks some more and heads outside into the gardens.

When he finds him, he stops and doesn’t approach for fear of disturbing him. This is a moment he was not meant to see. It reminds him for a moment of his own childhood and the way he would find his comfort and entertainment. It reminds him of the legends of his gods which he had been forbidden to worship but now Akbar is saying that it’s alright and…

 It’s a sight that would make their mother happy and he watches for a moment before departing.

He doesn’t like the idea of Aahan liking animals more than humans, but when he’s smiling in their company like he rarely smiles in human company. When he’s touching them with gentler hands than he approaches most anything else despite urgings. When he’s looking happier than he has in the long years since Nalin took over his care, he can’t help but feel hopeful about his future and his existence and can’t bring himself to disturb him.

In a small corner of his heart, he cannot help but wonder what he did to make his brother feel that his smiles were only safe around animals.

* * *

 

 It is after a tiresome day of yelling at Aahan and after a tense day follows where they go through the motions of their normal behavior when he retires to his rooms and encloses himself in shadows and smoke. Udit has been there for months upon months, years and years. War and conquering still wages on, as the only way for an empire to flourish is to keep on expanding and getting land and resources.

He is watching smoke curl up from his lips and not looking at the letter that has arrived from a near yet far court in a language he wishes he could erase from his memory.

The pipe is lifted from his fingers and he glances up and over and, “May I be of service, Udit?”

“You are harsh to him. And this time it wasn’t him that started it. It was me.”

 “Well, it is a rare day when you defend someone.”   

 “I am owning up to my mistakes.”

 “Am I now to get lectured by a child on how to raise another child?”

“The world that you were a child in and that I was a child in has ended.”

"You are still a child.”

"Do not align my physical body with my mental age.”

“You are still a child,” he repeats and holds up his hand for his pipe, “you think in a child’s logic and ways. I am harsh with him because he doesn’t respond to any other tone.”

 The pipe is dropped back in his fingers and Udit shakes his head, “You are both stubborn.”

 He takes a hit and then considers that; “I am alive today due to stubbornness.”

“And him?”

“He is alive today because I protect him.”

Udit mutters something that sounds like a swear and then leaves him alone with his pipe and the letter written so carefully and full of nothing of importance, but the mere fact that it is even there speaks of its importance enough.

 He wants to hate the person that wrote the letter but he cannot bring himself to.

* * *

 

“Bhai,” it is after prayers and they are eating the evening meal and then it will be time to go and look at the stars for studying but he pauses in dipping his food and raises a hand in acknowledgment. He had apologized shortly after Udit confronted him (even though he didn’t understand why he did, but if Udit was speaking up he had to have been really wrong) yet he and Aahan have spoken little since.

 “Yes?” he asks when the young boy makes no continued statement. Udit has been summoned to eat with Akbar to discuss his people again.

 “The…land to the north what are they like?”

 He considers that, and shrugs, “They are a wild sort, but I think you will like her, the one who represents them.” He notices the look on Aahan’s face and continues, “But the land itself…” and he goes on to describe it like it had been described to him in letters and like he remembered it from a long ago trip. Aahan looks enchanted.

"So,” he finishes up sooner than later, “She won’t have too far to travel.”

“Huh.” And that is it.

* * *

Aahan looks to Akbar like he hung the moon in the sky, and Nalin can understand that. He has met many a man in his day but this man is something else entirely. He is someone the likes of which Nalin has rarely met and as he sees how old he has grown, he saddens to think that like all men he shall die to age.

 War wages on in the north, and Akbar’s influence increases and he actually undoes years of damage that his forefather’s caused. He helps ease the pain of Nalin’s people and they soon grow to like him as well.

Yet, he is still an Emperor and it is an empire’s job to expand and to control. The year closes with the announcement of another person coming to live with them to show just how much their victor has achieved.

 

She is older than he thinks she was last they met, but she is still a child. But he still shows her the respect due to her, and then has to be the one to inform her that they will be relocating shortly. She seems fine with that, and taken aback when she sees all the others living in the palace.

“You’ve spread far.” And he cannot help but agree. Akbar’s reach spreads to a level he hasn’t seen in centuries. He wonders how long it will last—if it can last past his lifetime.

 But, formalities must still be seen to so he introduces her to Aahan and to Udit.

Aahan is well behaved for once and burning with curiosity about her homeland. She answers in short sentences but conveys it well enough to him who has so rarely traveled.

Nalin had tried to introduce him to Keshini a few years ago but he had fallen so ill after the boat ride he had only stayed there long enough to check in with her and then take him back to the mainland. She had scolded him for forcing him on a boat when Aahan had protested so strongly. Seeing him sick and weak afterwards had been the proof Nalin needed to not try that again. 

He watches them all interact, and it is odd for a moment, remembering them smaller than this and yet here they are, small but still bigger. They are wiser than when they first met and learning still. They have had a rough time of it, but he remembers Udit’s words years ago.

_“The world that you were a child in and that I was a child in has ended.”_

The world has indeed changed. There are white men along his south-western borders, controlling trade that had been his people to regulates and he cannot help but wonder what this will bring for him next as Afia shakes her head at Aahan’s shoving of Udit and aims a glance his way as if to say ‘will you not control this child?’

He has never been one to ignore a lady in need and goes to fix the situation.

* * *

 

Akbar is old, and Nalin wonders if his son will be able to control the large empire unlike Akbar’s father had been at first after his father had died. It’s steady now with Akbar in command; the empire is increasing in power and controlling what land it does rule over as Akbar has found a way to make it all work and function smoothly. There isn’t as much tension as there had been between the different religions and the different people. Nalin doesn’t feel the urge to leave and he doesn’t feel an undercurrent of fear in his bones. He’s at peace for the time being.

It helps, he thinks, that his family surrounds him. He doesn’t think so many of them have all been coexisting in the same house for this long.

Aahan is starting to open up more surrounded by more people who are like him and who aren’t Nalin who speaks more harshly than he should at times. It is curious. He wonders if the same undercurrent of unease has been plaguing Aahan like it has been him for all these tense eras of this new empire. These are more Aahan’s people than they are his, but this is still his land, and he still connected to them so they are both of theirs.

The fragile existence of a country without a unified people and land, and the steady existence of a country that has lasted centuries upon centuries and the path that they both must walk together for a while. _At which point_ , he wonders, fingers brushing along the silk fur of a tiger as he looks at the afternoon sky, and as the sound of children laughing fills the air, _does this end?_

The laughter still sounds lighthearted, so he closes his eyes and trusts in them to keep calm and light and play without mishap for a while longer. At times he wishes he could see into the future, but he doesn't know if that would be a blessing or a curse. What would it be like to have foresight and to plan accordingly but know that in the end it wouldn’t have much impact, rather than to look back at the past and laugh at how foolish you were?

He could have never pictured this life for himself, and never for so many years and for so long.

“Bhai!” and he barely gets his eyes open before they’re covered with leaves, petals, dirt and who knows what. He wipes at his face and then opens them to find half of his siblings laughing and one of them pressing a hand to their face to muffle any laughter while Afia is shaking her head and turning back to being a nice, sweet girl. Unlike certain others…

“Well,” and he wipes his hands on his shirt and wipes at his face again, “At least I’m not due to meet with anyone right away. I pray you didn’t put bugs on me.”

“Well,” and fingers pinch his forehead and then pull away and he looks up with a frown at the bug held between them, “Only this one I think.”

“That’s disgusting, Tashi,” he sits up fully and shakes his hair as if to dislodge any lingering creatures, “Alright, who did it?”

A pause and then Tashi laughs for a moment, “It was a joint effort. Aside from Afia, she’s too busy reading.”

He crosses his legs and looks over all of them before shrugging, “Alright, but do try and keep the peace. I must go and wash.”

He stands and he walks away, hiding a smile as he does so when he can hear a sigh of relief behind him. He had worried in the beginning that Aahan with his too quick to anger self, and his harsh tongue wouldn’t be able to get along with everyone. There have been bumps on the road and things have not been easy, but it is a fragile harmony now. And if that means that pulling pranks on him and offering some protection to Aahan for pulling it in the first place is a way to show it—. He picks a petal from his shirt, and tosses it on the ground.

“Well, children will be children.”

* * *

 

It is one night that years later he will recall—after the Partition, and after seeing the hatred his brother held for him in his eyes, after hearing it from his own lips and then feeling it in the firm press of a gun to his back. After wars upon wars, after threats upon threats and after the resentment in his heart have died down some and he’s at his most calm and focused, he will recall this night. This moment.

He is sitting outside, in the wake of a new century. His fingers play his sitar as he hums lightly to himself and glances up now and again at the stars circling overhead and the clear night sky. His people are safe and happy. His sibling’s people are safe and happy. The world is bright and open and feels almost new. There’s a pounding in his heart that seems to be spilling over with excitement and happiness over the way the world is. He hopes it lasts for just a while longer. He likes feeling this powerful.

He is sliding from a song about love into one about faith when he notices that he is not alone anymore in this quiet section of the garden. He keeps strumming as he raises his face to see Aahan, “You should be sleeping.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You can’t hope to grow if you don’t sleep.”

“I can’t sleep,” he spits that out as if admitting it is a sign of weakness, and Nalin supposes in a way it is. He considers him as he continues to play and the music surrounds them.

“We all have nights like that,” he finally says a few minutes later after Aahan has settled down on the grass and is looking up at the sky. His brother inclines his head as if to show he’s listening so he continues, “It’s how we are. Sometimes we need sleep, sometimes we don’t. If you don’t, that’s fine I suppose but don’t go waking up anyone.”

“You’re not sleeping.”

“I’m an adult, I sleep later than children do.”

Aahan sighs and rolls on his side away from him, “What is that song called?”

“It’s…” and he tries to think of a way to explain that is the half remembered song of women at work centuries ago, “a lullaby.” He finally settles on because for him so long ago it had been. Falling asleep on the banks of rivers, hearing this distant song in the background, and now so many years later it’s being heard again by another boy who has curled up into himself.

“Oh.”

He sighs and then starts singing lightly. The words have faded with time, so he makes up replacement verses when he cannot remember. It is a blending of his memories with the old as he sings. The land of old and the land of new, the land where he wandered, and the land where he stays, together they are one, and together they are him.

And, as he winds down on that song, this land isn’t just his anymore, he reflects. These people aren’t just his. He can feel it with the surety of his own knowledge of whom he is that more change is coming and that this boy laying across from him is part of that change. He hopes this change will not spell his end, even as he looks at this boy that he has cared for and that he loves and hopes it will not spell his end either.

“Well,” he says after the song has faded and his strumming is just a distraction for his fingers as his mind and mouth work, “Aahan, any requests?”

“No,” and then as an afterthought, because manners have been being stressed this week, “bhai.”

“If you say so,” he thinks and then starts playing a song about the birth of the universe and the great god making and remaking it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> India is between 4000-5000 years old. Pakistan is between 900-500 or at least the concept of him is. 
> 
> Nalin is around 20 or so in age physically at this time. Mughal Empire rule helped him gain quite a few years due to the growth and development it brought to the subcontinent. He also gained one or two while underneath the British Raj. He gained the rest when his country got fully established after 1947, making him around 30 in modern days. He had had several names before the 16th century, but by then was pretty settled into ‘Nalin’ as a near permanent human alias. 
> 
> Aahan would later in life change his name to Akmal Farooq. Pakistan’s entire personality and design is completely borrowed from [Shilly as he is her OC for Hetalia.](http://nekotalia.tumblr.com/) Udit would later change his name to Emran Azim.
> 
> All other South Asian nations who appear bio’s can [ be found here.](http://aphsouthasia.tumblr.com/bios)
> 
> Fun fact #2: The person he's being angsty over is like 90% Persia. During a decade of Akbar's reign relations between the Persian and Mughal courts were cut off and while he's not exactly happy with Persia at this point he's not exactly alright with not getting to see or talk with them again ever.


End file.
